


this was not in the job description

by hopeless_hope



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Cute Kids, Fire, Fluff, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Past Rape/Non-con, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Whump, and cats, artist baby!!, cool i've never gotten to use that tag before, just in the last part though, this is mostly a light-hearted story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 04:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17379464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeless_hope/pseuds/hopeless_hope
Summary: “What,” Tony says flatly.Pepper looks up at the screen and laughs. Peter is standing at the bottom of a staircase leading to a stage, with a bunch of other people dressed as Spider-Man clustered around him.“Ned, I don’t think I should be doing this,” Peter’s hissing to his friend.“Of course you should be doing this! It’s a Spider-Man look alike contest! There’s no way you’re not going to win,” Ned says matter-of-factly.orSometimes Tony likes to check on Peter through the Baby Monitor Protocol. The results are usually amusing. (5 times Tony watches Peter through the Baby Monitor Protocol and 1 time he intervenes.)





	this was not in the job description

**Author's Note:**

  * For [underoosstark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/underoosstark/gifts).



> Creds to @underoosstark for helping me come up with most of these ideas. Thank god she's as weird as I am. Love you, girl. <3
> 
> WARNINGS: Implied non-con (not with Peter) in the sixth part. He does get violent, though, and his past with Skip Wescott is implied, so be careful. Sorry, I had to toss a little angst in there, you know me. The rest is pretty light-hearted.

Tony installed the Baby Monitor Protocol into Peter’s suit solely as a safety mechanism. If ever Peter is in over his head, his suit’s AI is able to analyze the situation and call for assistance. Or, if any legal trouble were to crop up, Karen’s continuous footage could provide good evidence, if Tony’s money didn’t do the trick.

It’s all just a good precaution to have, especially considering how young the kid is. Tony doesn’t pay any mind to it on the daily, and he _certainly_ doesn’t watch the footage for his own amusement. No, he is far too busy for that.

Or, at least, that’s what he tells himself, even as he sits in an important meeting, bored as all hell, and pulls up the current footage on his watch. The tiny, almost invisible ear buds in his ears play audio.

He nearly barks out a laugh when he takes in the footage. Peter is high up in a tree that’s right by an apartment complex, one foot against the building and the other against the tree. He’s staring down an angry-looking orange tabby cat, who’s hissing and snarling at him.

“Now that’s just rude!” Peter chides. “I’m trying to _help_ you. You’re stuck, you little terror. Look,” he says, and the camera shifts to look into the window behind him, where a little girl is anxiously watching them, “Your owners are worried about you. Although, I can’t imagine why,” he mutters.

Tony watches as the kid tries to shift forward, heading further into the tree. The feline cowers back but stops when it realizes it’s at the end of the branch.

“See? Look what you did to yourself. That’s on you,” Peter scolds, and Tony huffs out a laugh, quickly glancing up to make sure no one’s attention is on him. Beside him, Pepper is watching their speaker with rapt attention, and he shrugs. _Eh, she can fill me in later._

He turns back to the feed when Peter’s voice sounds again. “Come _on,_ ” he pleads, sticking out a hand as he carefully balances on the branch, mindful of his body weight.

“Peter, be careful,” Karen warns. “If you go much further, the limb will snap and you’ll both go down.”

“Right. At least cats have nine lives,” he comments.

“Actually, that’s just a – “

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Peter interrupts, precariously crouching down before addressing the cat again. “You’re making this so difficult. We could have been friends.”

He stretches his arms out again, yelping when the cat swipes at him. Tony shakes his head at that. Damn kid barely flinches when people toss knives at him, but he’s startled by this? Goodness gracious.

“Rude. Why can’t you just be a nice little lap cat, huh?” He takes a deep breath. “Okay. So, I’m going to grab you really fast and you’re not going to claw me to pieces, alright?”

The cat just flattens its ears down even more, and Peter shakes his head. “Guess that’s as good as I’m gonna get.”

Then, so quickly that Tony can barely even process it, the kid darts forward and snags the cat into his arm. The animal lets out a panicked yowl, claws sinking into the fabric of Peter’s suit, and Tony winces. He knows it won’t _really_ do any damage – Tony’s a better engineer than _that_ – but still.

“Damn it,” Peter swears under his breath as me makes his way back to the window, the cat firmly latched onto him.

The little girl starts cheering as Peter climbs back through the window, and Tony hears Peter’s faint scoff. He lands on his feet and gently grabs the cat around the middle, wincing as he pries its claws away.

“Oh, good, Mr. Stark is gonna _love_ that,” Peter says to himself, and Tony snorts.

That was a mistake, though, because Pepper’s eyes snap to his and her expression quickly turns to a glare. She elbows him in the side and nods her head at the speaker.

“Watch,” he mouths and tilts the watch to she can see the screen. At first, she shakes her head insistently, but then she stops and watches as Peter hands the cat back to the little girl, who immediately snuggles it close.

“You saved Pumpkin!” she squeals, and Peter shrugs modestly. Then, the girl gently sets the cat down – it immediately flees from the vicinity – and without warning, barrels forward and gives Peter a giant hug.

“Thank you, Spider-Man, thank you!”

Tony watches in amusement as Peter hesitantly pats her back. “Just doing what any good hero would do. Just try to keep a hold on Pumpkin next time, yeah?”

She pulls away and looks up at him with a toothy grin. “Okay!”

And with that, Peter gives her a cheerful wave before hopping out the window, the footage suddenly shaking chaotically, and Tony cuts it off.

Pepper gives him another scolding glare, but he can’t help but notice that even she has a slight smile on her face. Tony smirks and looks up at the speaker, still not paying any attention.

It was a meeting well-spent.

* * *

Tony is bored.

Which isn’t really a word he’s generally acquainted with, but right now, he is. Tonight he’s going out with Pepper, but she’s still on her way home. And typically, he’d simply escape to the lab and tinker around until she arrives, but he’s already dressed up and ready to go. So now, he’s just sitting on the couch, lazily scrolling through his phone.

He slides his finger to the next screen of apps, eye catching on the Baby Monitor app.  A green dot indicates that Peter’s suit is in use, so Tony opens it with a shrug. It’s not like he has anything better to do.

It takes Tony no more than a split second to adjust to the quick blur of the screen as Peter swings through the city. He watches for a minute or two before the kid starts to slow, evidently having had a fixed destination in mind. Then, Tony sees why.

A giant tour bus full of people is stopped on a steep incline, slowly starting to inch backwards, and Peter swears under his breath and rushes behind the bus, quickly putting his weight into pushing it forward before it gains momentum.

His feet skid on the pavement, and for a second, Tony tenses, worried that the bus is going to keep going backward and take Peter with it.

Peter lets out a grunt as he pushes a little harder, and thankfully, the bus stops its descent. For a second, Peter just stands there, holding a whole bus. People around him start clapping and cheering and Peter nods.

“Well, this is a fucking predicament,” Peter mutters to himself. “Karen, what do I do?”

“You could either stay like this until a towing service arrives, which, in this traffic, would be approximately twenty-seven minutes. Or, you can push it up to the top of the hill,” the AI informs him, and Peter groans.

“Wow, I love that for me. Well, no way in hell am I standing here for half an hour. Up the hill it is,” he decides.

Tony raises his eyebrows. Peter being able to support the weight of a bus isn’t anything new, but to actively push it up a hill with people in it is a whole different story. He watches curiously.

Peter lets out a heavy sigh. “Become a superhero, they said! It’ll be great, they said!” he mocks to himself, and Tony chuckles. Absolutely _no one_ would ever tell him such a thing.

The kid steels himself and then pushes forward again, hard. For a moment, nothing happens, and then slowly, the bus starts inching forward. Peter’s chest is already heaving with exertion, and Tony can see people recording the kid from the edge of the footage.

“This,” Peter pants, “sucks. Why do I do this, Karen?”

Tony didn’t realize until after watching Peter through the Baby Monitor feed just how much Peter sees Karen as a friend. It’s maybe a little unhealthy, but mostly it’s just cute. Even for an AI, Karen seems to be fond of the vigilante.

“You want to help out the little guy,” she supplies, and he lets out another groan.

“Right. This is a _lot_ of little guys,” Peter breathes tiredly.

“You don’t have much further to go. Almost there,” she encourages.

“Thank God,” Peter gasps. “How many churros do you think I deserve after this?”

“As much as the six dollars and forty-two cents in your account will allow you to buy,” Karen responds, sounding amused.

“Can’t wait,” Peter mutters, giving one last push before the bus lands at the top of the hill. The crowd of people that had gathered erupts again, clapping enthusiastically.

“Thank you, Spider-Man!” someone yells loudly, and Peter’s head turns in their direction. He salutes dorkily.

“Happy to be of service!” he calls back, already turning to web himself up to the nearest building.

“Come on, Karen. I’m going to spend the rest of my money on churros. It’s what I deserve,” Peter says, and Tony exits the app, making a mental note to slip some money into the kid’s account.

As he and Pepper wait for their food later that night, Tony’s phone dings and he glances down at it absentmindedly. He and Pepper usually have a “no phones at the table” rule, but he can’t help but take a closer look when the notification he keeps for information on Peter pops up.

He laughs when he reads it.

“What?” Pepper asks, more curious than annoyed. He shows her.

Number one trending on Twitter is Spider-Man, grainy pictures of the kid pushing the bus in one long thread, with a caption following all of it.

_Local Superhero Keeps Bus Full of People from Being Yeeted Down a Street._

* * *

It’s only one in the afternoon when Tony gets the alert that the suit’s been activated. Which is suspicious, since the kid _definitely_ should be in school.

“FRIDAY, pull up the kid’s Baby Monitor footage,” he commands, wasting no time. The first thing he sees his grey and then he registers Karen’s voice.

“Peter, this suit is not built to withstand this kind of heat. I advise immediate retreat.”

For a moment, Tony is just confused. Then he takes in the faint orange glow. The blood drains from his face.

“Karen, I can’t! There are still people stuck in here. I have to get them out,” Peter says determinedly.

There’s a disapproving pause and then, “The structure will collapse in approximately six minutes. You have to move quickly.”

“Great,” Peter says, side-stepping a burning sofa. “Where are the people located again?”

“One floor up. Everyone else has been evacuated, but these can’t get down,” Karen supplies helpfully. Peter quickly finds the staircase and runs up it before it can become a victim of the burning flames.

“FRIDAY, how long would it take me to get to Peter’s location?” Tony asks, eyes glued to the footage.

“About eight minutes, Boss.”

“Shit,” he mutters, watching as Peter kicks through a closed door. The smoke is so thick he can barely see, but Tony figures the kid is relying on his enhanced senses to help him maneuver around.

After another minute of searching, the kid finds a mom and her son cowering by a window, as far away from the flames as they can get. The mom gasps in relief.

“Spider-Man!” she calls, already holding out her son, who can’t be much older than the age of four. “Please take him!” she pleads as Peter rushes over.

“Peter, you have four minutes. The structural integrity of the building is severely compromised,” Karen tells him urgently, and Tony hears Peter’s sharp intake of breath. He watches Peter’s heart rate increase rapidly on the monitor and frowns.

 _Of course,_ it dawns on him suddenly. The Peter’s already been in one collapsing building. Poor kid must be terrified out of his mind.

“I’m taking you both,” Peter tells her, and the woman’s eyes widen.

“Is that possible?” she asks him shakily.

“Karen, is it possible? Will my webbing support all of our weight?” he asks the AI.

“It will. Three minutes, Peter.”

He turns back to the woman. “We’re going to jump out the window and it’s going to be terrifying, but we’ve got to get you and your son to safety. I have to swing, so you and your son need to hang onto me as tight as possible, okay? We can sandwich him in between us.”

The woman nods, terrified, and Peter opens the window. Then, he turns around and spots the little boy crying into his mother’s neck. He crouches down.

“Hey, buddy. What’s your name?” he asks gently.

“Archer,” he answers thickly.

“What a cool name! Well, Archer, how about a piggy-back ride with Spider-Man?” The kid nods shyly and his mom carefully places him on Peters back. “Okay, but you have to hold on _super_ tightly, got it?”

Peter waits for the kid to settle.

“Two minutes, Peter,” Karen interjects, and Peter nods and looks at the woman. Behind her, flames are licking at the walls and the floor, quickly making their approach, and Tony clenches his fist tightly, heart in his throat.

_Get out of there, kid!_

“Get behind him and hold on tight,” he tells her, and she clambers up behind him, hands on his shoulders and legs around his waist, Archer safely tucked between the two.

“Peter, the flames are going to reach you any second and the building floor is going to collapse. You need to leave _now,_ ” Karen says insistently.

“Roger that,” Peter says. “Hang on tight. Close your eyes if you’re afraid of heights.”

Just as he’s about to leap off the ledge, a small flame licks at his heels, and Peter can’t help the but curse loudly.

“Shit!” he gasps, stomping it out. He doesn’t waste any more time.

He jumps.

Tony holds his breath, chest pounding anxiously, and winces at the sound of the child screaming in Peter’s ear. Peter cautiously webs them away just as a large crash sounds from the building behind them, launching violent puffs of smoke into the sky.

Just in time.

Tony scrapes a stressed hand over his face as Peter lowers them safely to the ground and into the hands of the waiting EMTs.

“FRIDAY, call the kid. I need to yell at him for giving me a _fucking_ heart attack.”

* * *

Tony is lying in bed, head resting on Pepper’s lap as she reads through some papers. Projected on the wall are some schematics for the Spider-Man suit. He’s not doing any work active work right now, but his brain is still moving a mile a minute, soothed by the soft glow of the projection.

He’s just about to switch to another file, this time with an Iron Man suit, when an icon at the corner of the screen indicates that the current Spider-Man suit is active.

“That’s odd,” Tony mutters, and Pepper looks down at him.

“What?”

“Peter’s in the suit, but I know for a fact that he’s at some sort of nerd convention thingy with Ned. He hasn’t been able to shut up about it for _months,_ ” Tony explains.

Pepper shrugs. “Well, check it out then. They’re probably just goofing around.”

Tony nods and pulls up the feed, hoping that they haven’t somehow managed to run into a villain there. When the footage lights up the room, Tony just stares.

“What.”

Pepper looks up and laughs. Peter is standing at the bottom of a staircase leading to a stage, with a bunch of other people dressed as Spider-Man clustered around him.

“Ned, I don’t think I should be doing this,” Peter’s hissing to his friend.

“Of _course_ you should be doing this! It’s a Spider-Man look alike contest! There’s no way you’re _not_ going to win,” Ned says matter-of-factly.

Peter looks doubtful. “Well, yeah, but this isn’t exactly moral, is it?”

Ned scoffs. “Morality is relative. Besides, there’s no room for a moral compass when it comes to the Avengers Lego set that we’ve been drooling after for _ages,_ and we’ll get a poster signed by all of the Avengers. How cool is that?!”

Tony snorts. “Peter literally sees the Avengers every other weekend. He trains with them. Eats with them. Jesus Christ.”

Peter sighs. “Ned, I see them all the time. I don’t need a signed copy of anything.”

“Yeah, well, that part’s more for my benefit than yours,” Ned admits, completely unashamed. “Plus, we _have_ to beat Flash. He’s been bragging about this for months. Imagine the look on his face when we beat him!”

Tony can practically feel Peter cracking. He glances over at Pepper. “You know, usually peer pressure happens with drugs or alcohol.”

Pepper laughs. “Guess we should be thankful, then.”

“Ned, Spider-Man isn’t a party trick,” Peter whispers insistently, but his friend just gives him a pleading look and lets out a huff. “Fine. But this is the only time I’ll ever do anything like this, okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Ned says, excited.

“Alright, contestants, make your way onto the stage!” an announcer’s voice calls. Tony sits up, invested in the proceedings now. He watches, stunned at the amount of people dressed in costumes based off the suit _he_ created for Peter.

They all line up, and Tony can see the large crowd of people in the audience, all dressed as various characters. It’s a mixture of terrifying and awe-inspiring.

“Wow, these are some truly breathtaking costumes! Now, you know how this works. Our judge is going to walk up and down, then do eliminations. Then, he’ll do a second round, narrowing it down to the last three and then he’ll pick the winner. The whole process should be relatively quick.”

The judge walks onto the stage and waves to the audience before turning to the contestants. His face goes stoic as he walks down the line slowly, eyes taking in every detail of each suit. On his way back down, he starts pointing to people and gesturing for them to leave. When he gets to Peter, the kid sucks in a tense breath, but then the judge just nods and keeps walking.

Peter looks to his right and lets a low growl almost, and Tony figures he must be looking at the Flash kid. His suspicions are confirmed when the other boy looks at Peter and makes a slicing gesture at his throat.

Tony instantly wants to strangle that kid, and one look at Pepper shows that she doesn’t feel much differently, either.

The judge makes his way back down the line, pulling more people out. Peter goes completely still when the judge gets to him, but he still gets passed. Tony could have told him he wouldn’t get eliminated. Peter _is_ Spider-Man, for god’s sake!

Finally, it’s just Flash, Peter, and one other kid. Tony can’t help but admit that Flash’s costume is almost ridiculously accurate, from color and design to fabric texture and detailing. Tony is reluctantly impressed.

This time, the judge stands in front of the three of them, hand on his chin in thought. After a quiet, tense moment, he gestures for the microphone.

“While all of these are very well done, we can only have one winner, and I think I have made my decision.”

Even Tony can’t help but hold his breath in anticipation.

“All three of these suits exemplify superior artistry and craftsmanship. The detailing on all of them is beautiful, but the one that I believe is most accurate to Spider-Man is… you.”

Tony blinks incredulously.

“What the fuck?”

“And what is your name, young man?” the judge asks.

“Flash Thompson,” the kid says, shooting Peter a cocky smirk, and Tony turns off the screen, not wanting to see anymore.

Pepper, however, just laughs her ass off.

* * *

“Boss, Karen says you might want to be on standby. Peter is currently chasing an… evil wingman and an artist baby through the length of New York,” FRIDAY calls.

Tony’s hands still from where he’s working in his workshop. “I understand all of those words individually, but none of them make sense together. Try again.”

“That’s just what Karen is telling me. Would you like me to pull up the live feed?”

“Please,” Tony says, about fifty shades of confused. As soon as the footage starts playing, Tony just lets out a big sigh. “Jesus Christ.”

“Hey, Mister Toomes Knockoff!” Peter is yelling as he swings after the man with metal wings. “You can’t just steal people’s babies! That’s rude. Look what you did – it’s got anxiety!”

Tony closes his eyes in exasperation. “I hate this kid.”

He calls a suit to be ready but doesn’t don it yet. He tries to give the kid space and let him do his friendly neighborhood business independently. But this looks like a little more than a typical Spider-Man problem.

The man, wearing a white coat, turns around and shoots some sort of blast in Peter’s direction, but the kid dodges easily.

“Oh, come on, man! This is ridiculous. You can’t steal and modify alien tech and expect people to just let it happen,” Peter chides.

“Give it up, Spidey!” the man yells. “You wouldn’t want an innocent child to get hurt.”

Peter barely dodges the second blast, kicking off the side of a building to keep from crashing into it.

“Hey, only my friends call me ‘Spidey’!” he yells back. “Poor kid,” he mumbles sympathetically at the wailing baby, who’s holding – wait.

“Is that… a paintbrush?” Tony asks out loud. Peter answers his questions with his next comment.

“Just put the baby down and I’ll let you off easy! He was having such a great time in that painting class his parents were taking,” Peter bargains.

The man swerves slightly and swoops down, and Peter nearly swings into a vending machine.

“Shit, Karen, help me out here!” he yells.

“Plotting course, Peter. If you take a right, then a left, and then another left, you can cut him off,” she informs.

“Wonderful,” he groans. “I don’t think I like that. Can I just building hop?”

“That works.”

“Great,” he says, leaping across rooftops with ease. He runs until he meets back with the winged man, shoot a web, leaps on top of the wings from above, and swiftly shoots out a second web to grab the baby as it gets loosened from the man’s grasp.

“Nicely done, kid,” Tony can’t help but say.

Peter quickly gathers the crying baby in his arm and shoots yet another mass of webbing at the startled man’s wings, letting him fall to the ground, before carefully lowering himself and the sobbing baby to the ground.

“You traumatized him, you a-hole!” Peter scolds as he webs the man up. The guy just laughs.

“Wow, you really are young.”

Peter glares at him. “ _Some_ of us just have respect for little ears,” he spits, before turning away. He shifts the baby in his arms and lets him rest his head on Peter’s shoulder. “Come on, babe, let’s get you back to your parents. I’m sure they’re worried sick.”

The baby hiccups and continues to cry, but Peter just pats his back as they walk back in the direction they came from.

“Poor guy. You’re going to need _years_ of therapy in the future. But don’t we all, honestly?”

Tony lets out a snort of laughter at that, amused now that the dire situation has diffused. He lets himself indulge in listening to the kid’s goofy, distinctly Gen Z comments.

“Anywho, you’ll be back with your parents in just a few more minutes, I promise.”

The baby lets out a warbled noise and sits up, batting Peter’s mask with one grubby hand. He closes his tiny fist and tugs gently.

“Ow ow ow, there’s skin under there too, buddy,” Peter informs him, gently prying his hand away. “Plus, I have a secret identity to maintain, yeah? I’m sure you understand.”

The toddler just blinks up at him, and Peter sighs.

“Guess that’s a bit low on your list of problems. You’re probably more concerned about naps and food.”

The baby just lets out a loud burp in his face, and Peter flinches. “Gross. Thanks, I really loved that.” Tony laughs.

Peter turns the corner and points out the building with police crowded around the front. “Look, I bet they’re all looking for you!”

Peter waves and calls over to get their attention. A lady, who had been tearfully talking to an officer, looks up and lets out a cry.

“Oh, my baby!” she cries, immediately running forward. The toddler just hiccups again and then coughs wetly, and Peter bounces him gently.

“Whoa, you okay there? Look, there’s your mo- _gross!”_ Peter whines in disgust. Tony has no clue what he’s talking about until the camera shifts his shoulder, which is now covered in spit-up and slobber.

When the mom reaches them, Peter enthusiastically hands the child over.

“Oh, thank you so much, Spider-Man! How can I repay you?” she asks, cradling her baby.

“Um,” Peter says, still preoccupied with the slime on his shoulder.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” the woman apologizes when she sees what Peter’s looking at, but he just shakes his head.

“It’s okay. Poor guy had a rough ride. I’m surprised it’s not more, actually. Anyway, you guys should probably get going. I’m sure you want some nice relaxation after this.”

The woman smiles gratefully and gives him a quick hug before heading back to the crowd of people.

Peter sighs. “Hey Karen, do you know anywhere that dry cleans multi-million dollar super suits?”

Tony laughs and shakes his head, turning the feed off.

“Incredible.”

* * *

Tony’s having dinner with a handful of the Avengers at the Compound when he gets the call.

“Stark,” he greets shortly.

“Hi, um, this is Ned – Peter’s friend.”

Tony balks at that. “Wait, how’d you get this number?” he asks crossly.

“Peter, uh, gave it to me in case of an emergency. And, I think this is an emergency,” Ned says nervously, and Tony’s already pulling up the kid’s vitals, noting the elevated heartrate.

“Explain,” Tony commands sharply.

“He was out patrolling and on the phone with me through Karen and then he heard crying and screaming and went to investigate. There was this guy assaulting a girl and Peter went crazy and,” Ned takes a deep breath and says the rest in a big rush, “he cut the call with me and won’t answer, and I think he might legitimately kill this guy and you’re the only one I know who can find him and stop him from doing something he’ll regret.”

Tony’s already halfway out of his seat, not even bothering to fill anyone else in. Steve makes to follow him, as well as Pepper and Rhodey, but he waves them off and rushes out, still talking to Ned.

“Why do you think he’ll kill this guy, Ned? Peter’s a good kid, and he’s seen some dark stuff. He always stays in control,” Tony insists.

Ned is silent for a moment. “It’s not my place to tell. But please, Mr. Stark. Trust me. You have to help him get out of his head.”

“Will do,” he says, then cuts the call as he steps into his suit. “FRIDAY, pull up Baby Monitor and take me to Peter’s location as fast as possible.”

Almost immediately, the footage starts playing.

“You think it’s fun? _Preying_ on people? Waiting to target people who are powerless?” Peter snarls, punching the guy and sending him flying into a wall. He groans and slides to the ground, blood dribbling from his lip.

“Jus’ lookin’ for a good time,” he says, smirking up at Peter, and Peter rushes at him and kicks him in the ribs.

“You disgusting piece of _shit._ She’s going to have to live with that for the rest of her life, you pathetic _monster!_ ” Peter howls, kicking the man again.

A shiver runs down Tony’s spine at the darkness in Peter’s voice, a tone he’s never heard from the kid before.

“She’s going to be sorry you interrupted us,” the man drawls, and Peter takes a handful of his shirt and lifts him, banging him into the wall.

“You’re a sick fuck,” Peter spits hoarsely. Tony feels nauseous.

“FRIDAY, come on, get me there faster,” he urges. “And call Peter.”

It rings once before immediately being hung up on, so Tony tries again, this time forcing the call through.

“Peter,” Tony says.

“I’m kind of in the middle of something,” Peter retorts, and Tony sighs.

“Pete, you can’t keep going. You’ve gotta stop,” Tony starts, not even bothering to come up with a pretense for the call.

“He deserves it,” Peter snarls, smacking the man across the face when he laughs.

“I know, Pete,” Tony soothes. “I know, and we’ll make sure he gets punished, I promise. But this isn’t the way. This isn’t the Peter I know, and this definitely isn’t Spider-Man. Just web him up and step back.”

Peter shakes his head. “You don’t _get_ it,” he seethes. “It won’t _do_ anything. He won’t even end up in jail. They never fucking do.”

Tony’s heart stops as he processes that. He sees the man, now covered in blood, face swollen start to smile again as he puts two and two together.

“Oh, I guess Spider-Man isn’t so big and bad after all,” he taunts. “Unless, it was consensual, because you should be _strong_ enough to ward off any – “

Peter lets out a roar, a completely foreign sound, something between anguished and angry and lunges forward, kicking and punching the man just as Tony touches down behind him.

“Pete, come on, you have to stop,” Tony says insistently, but it’s like the rational part of Peter’s brain has completely shut down.

He kicks the man over and over, a scabbed over wound breaking open within him as he hurts him. Tony quickly rushes over and carefully wraps his arms around the kid from behind.

“Peter, come back. It’s okay, it’s going to be okay, but you have to stop,” Tony says lowly, and Peter chokes on his own screams, thrashing in Tony’s hold as his mentor drags him away from the unconscious body.

“Let me go, Tony, _let me go!_ ” he wails, an animalistic sound, but Tony just turns him around and pulls the kid close, tucking his head into his chest. Peter grabs at his arm with his full strength, denting Tony’s suit, but he doesn’t care.

“Hey, hey – shhh, it’s okay. Peter, calm down, you’re going to hurt himself,” Tony consoles.

“You don’t – you don’t understand, Tony, let me go, let me go, let me go,” Peter repeats, voice hoarse as anguished tears fall from his eyes.

Tony gently lowers them to the ground. “I can’t, buddy. I’m not going to let you go.”

Peter takes in heaving breaths, beyond words now, and Tony pulls the boy into his lap, letting his suit fall away when Peter’s grip slackens tiredly. For a while, they stay like that, Peter crying into Tony’s neck. Tony runs a comforting hand through Peter’s curls, the weight of what he’s learned tonight resting heavy on his soul.

He’s already making a to-do list in his head, with finding out who hurt Peter being at the very top. He figures they could use a visit from some very pissed off Avengers. But now’s not the time for that, he tells himself, turning his full attention back to his kid.

“It’s okay, Pete,” he soothes. “I’m not going to let you go. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> You know how sometimes you start to write a story and you have it pictured exactly how you want it in your head? And sometimes, you completely nail it and it comes out just how you imagined it? Yeah, that did not happen here. What I had in my brain was much better/more amusing and entertaining than what actually came out. So, I'm sorry about that. I'm upset, but I wanted to post anyway, because I'm about to go back to school and won't have as much time to write anymore. It's not even edited because I'm tired, whoops.
> 
> Anywho. Sorry for rambling and if this just wasn't entertaining. As always, if you did like it, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!
> 
> Come talk to me on tumblr @the-great-escapism, where I spend a ridiculous amount of time.


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